Efren Penaflorida or "Kuya Ef" as he's known by his followers/admirers was only 16 when he put up his Dynamic Teen Company (DTC) His efforts to teach poor youngsters and help break chain gangs had caught the attention of CNN.
The organization has nominated him together with nine other finalists around the world in its "HERO of the YEAR" Award. It comes with a $100,000 prize to the winner, not to mention the prestige associated with the accolade. According to FIlipino Wikipedia, Efren envisioned DTC "as a tool to reach the underserved Filipino youth by providing free tutorials."
He asked three fellow high school students to devote some of their time to teach children in the slum areas every Saturday.
After ten years, DTC has gained around 10,000 members and conducted tutorials for approximately 1,500children.
Today, DTC's "pushcart classroom" also teaches basic reading and writing to street children. In doing so, the group has helped break the chain gangs which dominated the lives of many street kids in the past.
Everyone, especially Filipinos are urged to vote for the now 28 year old achiever at CNN online voting poll between this time and 19th of November, 2009. Just go to this site and click on Efren's photo to vote: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/vote
A panel of 12 well-known personalities from various fields picked the finalists. Colin Powell was among the judges this year. The winner will be announced in a star-studded show at Los Angeles/ Kodak Theatre on Thanksgiving night. If Efren wins the award which really depends on the number of votes he gets, he will be able to expand his mobile school program for the slum kids.
A real-life story such as Efren's is truly inspiring and makes us proud to be Filipinos, which sadly is rare these days! – ?